Roger Moorehead
Professor, Department of Biomedical Science
Ontario Veterinary College
University of Guelph
rm 3626
50 Stone Rd East
Guelph, ON, N1G2W1
e:rmoorehe@uoguelph.ca
t:519-824-4120 x54950
Background
I completed my undergraduate and graduate work at McMaster University. My graduate research was supervised by Dr. Gurmit Singh where I focused on photodynamic therapy and mitochondrial function in cancer cells. After completing my PhD in 1997 I joined Dr. Rama Khokha’s lab at the University Health Network as a Postdoctoral Fellow. While in the Khokha lab I learned mouse modeling including the generation of transgenic and knockout mice. I joined the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Guelph as an Assistant Professor in 2001. As a new faculty member I set out to establish a novel transgenic mouse model where the type I insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGF-IR) was overexpressed in mammary epithelial cells. These IGF-IR transgenic mice developed mammary tumors and work stemming from this transgenic line has lead my lab into research areas such as epithelial to mesenchymal transition, migration and metastasis, tumor microenvironment, metabolism, extracellular matrix, secreted proteins such as osteopontin and nidogen-1, angiogenesis, microRNAs, dietary soy and lung cancer.
The Lab
The Moorehead lab is focused on understanding how genes and non-coding RNAs, especially microRNAs, regulate mammary and lung cancer initiation and progression. The lab utilizes transgenic and knockout mouse models as well as human and murine tumor cell lines. The lab is located in a shared laboratory environment within the Ontario Veterinary College with PIs researching topics such as ovarian cancer, PIWIL proteins/piRNAs, stem cells, embryonic development, metabolism, and endocrine disruptors.